Many institutional changes have taken place to payments systems. Indeed, they have been in continual change ever since money first emerged as the dominant technology for conducting transactions. Means of settlement between banks have changed: cheques replaced cash in many transactions, and they...

New technology in computing has led some to suggest that the ability to settle transactions electronically will develop to such an extent that money will disappear from use. Two versions of this belief exist. One maintains that there will be ‘e-money’, issued conceivably by many...